1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to eyewear and, more particularly, to a system for retaining a slender elongated object adjacent an upper surface of an eyeglass temple member worn by an eyeglass wearer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common practice for the wearer of eyeglasses to want to temporarily place a slender elongate object, typically a pencil, behind his or her ear to free a hand for another purpose. Without wearing eyeglasses, such a person would have no difficulty in so positioning the pencil. However, with eyeglasses of known construction in place, any attempt to so place the pencil would generally be unsuccessful or at least most difficult to achieve. This failure results from the fact that the eyeglass temple member already occupies the crevice between the base of the ear and the head which normally would hold the pencil in place absent the eyeglasses.
There have been attempts to overcome this difficulty. One such attempt can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,111 to Abel which discloses a U-shaped holding device constructed of open wire or molded or formed by stamping. The holding device is releasably attached to the temple piece of eyewear to support a pencil or other elongated item alongside the temple piece and relies on its resilient construction for holding the pencil in place. One problem with this design is that, with a pencil supported on the holding device, the upper part of the ear is urged outwardly away from the head of the user to an undesirable and unappealing extent. Also, with Abel, the relative positioning between the pencil and the holding device is necessarily fixed while it would be desirable for the user to be able to allow the pencil to assume a variety of positions while it is still being held firmly in place.
In a number of instances, eyewear has been modified for securing various objects to temple pieces. In U.S. Pat. No. D212,863 to Roberts, for example, the secured object is a miniature radio; in U.S. Pat. No. 3,209,755 to McCarthy et al., a nasal catheter holder; in U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,059 to Humphreys, a receptacle containing lens cleaning tissues; in U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,304 to Baker, side glare-eliminating shields; and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,787 to Zegarelli, a surgical mask support.
Another grouping of patents typifies a body of prior art in which friction devices are disposed on temple pieces for maintaining the eyeglasses on the wearer's head. These typical U.S. patents are noted as follows:                D349,508 to Conway;        U.S. Pat. No. 1,636,740 to Hickey;        U.S. Pat. No. 1,833,792 to Pfaus et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 2,626,538 to Frum;        U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,635 to Wortman; and        U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,903 to Jannard et al.        
It was in light of the foregoing that the present invention was conceived and has now been reduced to practice.